Posted: October 8, 2024
As many people with their own home library (or even just a few books on a shelf) I have a preferred method of organizing my books. Some people just put their books away at random. Some organize them aesthetically. Some organize alphabetically or by genre. Some (barbarians in my opinion) organize by colour.
For people who organize alphabetically by author last name only, they may not strictly care whether their fiction books are next to non-fiction, their romances next to their thrillers. This is still a great method of organizing books in a home library, as most people tend to stick to only a few genres that they prefer. Even so, they may separate their fiction from their non-fiction, just to keep things organized.
I like to think that most people take on a functional method of organizing rather than an aesthetic one for the purpose of reading, as it makes sense to keep series, author works, or like genres together for the sake of easier navigation. There are, however, people out there that sort their books for aesthetic reasons. They may be readers, but most often, the books are there for display only.
There are a few methods of aesthetically sorting books: height, colour, or even just specific choice. You may separate hardcovers from paperbacks, or sort by thickness or even by how much you like each book’s cover. Some people, if they have a whole room or wall of bookshelves, like to make a rainbow effect with their red books, orange books, yellow books, and so on. I wish I had enough books to do this—even if I’d never sort my books this way personally.
For my books at home, I have a few levels of organization. First and foremost, I sort my books by whether I’ve read them already or not—then additionally by whether I’ve written and posted my review of them. The books I haven’t read go on their own shelf in my office, while the other two shelves I have are in the hallway, packed top to bottom with the books that I’ve read and reviewed. From there, I separate them into classics, poetry/plays, and other. This third category contains all non-classic fiction (and even a few non-fiction books, but not many). From there, I organize alphabetically by author last name.
What about you? What do you think is the most effective method of organizing books, and how do you do it at home?
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Tigerpetal Press is a small book press dedicated to publishing local authors and poets.